The claimed invention relates to devices in mobile computers and, more particularly, to communication with devices in mobile computers.
Notebook (or “laptop”) computers may include one or more devices that may be built-in and/or removable from an expansion bay or similar housing. Such devices may be somewhat modular and may interact with the remainder of the notebook computer via an interface, such as the parallel advanced technology attachment (PATA) interface. Examples of such devices may include optical media drives, other types of removable-media devices, and/or communication devices.
For devices in which media may be inserted, an operating system in the notebook computer may periodically poll the device to determine whether a state of the media has been changed (e.g., media inserted, ejected, etc.). Such ongoing polling of the device, however, may in some instances prevent the device from being placed in a lower-power mode (e.g., powered down/off). This polling operation and corresponding device state may consume more power than the lower-power mode.